Cazenove could pick up two sets of fees from its work on UK building company George Wimpey's offer to acquire rival Alfred McAlpine's housebuilding operations.

Wimpey is offering £461m (€731m) in cash for the McAlpine division, and the companies have been in talks for a few weeks. Cazenove is acting as joint broker to Wimpey, alongside Merrill Lynch. In addition, Cazenove is sole financial adviser to McAlpine. The UK bank was officially brought in at the start of this year, although it had done work for the company before then.